Psy & Changelings 02 - Visions of Heat

you.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I think I like the wolf if he makes you say things like that.”
    Laughing, she let him kiss her, allowing it because Vaughn needed her to allow it. He was more openly possessive and dominant than the other males she’d seen with their mates. But that was fine with her. She could bear being thought of as utterly his.
     
    “I used to worry that the dark side of my ability was evil, a materialization of the twinning of the Net,” she said to Vaughn as they sat outside near their home. Stars peeked through the thick canopy and the denizens of the forest went about their business, safe in the knowledge that the resident predator was otherwise occupied. “But now I know that though what it shows me can be either good or bad, it in itself isn’t evil.”
    Vaughn, sitting behind her with his arms and legs cradling her, rested his chin on her hair but didn’t interrupt. Her cat knew how to listen. It was getting him to talk that was sometimes a problem.
    “I haven’t come to terms with it completely, but I’m starting to understand what it is I was meant to see, what anyone with my ability is meant to see.”
    “Your gift, Faith. It’s a precious gift.”
    “Yes.” She smiled, liking the word. “What I feel like right now—I’d compare it to waking from a dream and seeing the real world. It’s a beautiful place, but it also has darkness. If you try to eradicate that darkness, you also destroy the light.” Pain for the future of her people tightened her heart.
    “There’s hope. Your NetMind is fighting back.”
    She had to believe that. “And others, too, are starting to wake from the dream.” A dream of Silence. “It might take years for the ripples to chase across the Net, but they’re there now.” Putting her hand on his bare arms, she anchored herself in touch, the very thing that had once threatened to shatter her. “I’m so glad I found you.”
    His chuckle was a rumble that vibrated in her bones. “Sorry, Red. But I found you first.”
    “No, you didn’t.” She scowled—he liked getting his own way far too much. “I walked out into the forest.”
    “Yeah, but I was waiting for you to walk out.” He nuzzled the side of her neck. “I was drawn to your place like an addiction. If you hadn’t walked out when you had, I would’ve come looking.”
    Her eyes went wide. “Some things can’t be changed.” It was a thought that might’ve scared her once.
    “What?”
    “The future isn’t always mutable.” And what did that mean? “I’ve never before considered that. The ramifications are enormous. What is, what isn’t changeable—who chooses? What sets some things in stone and others in clay?” Excitement whispered through her. Finally she was in charge of her gift, able to chase things that fired up her imagination.
    “Some things are meant to be.” Vaughn bit her neck, forcefully bringing her attention back to him. “You were never going to be anyone’s but mine.”
    “You’re very possessive.” She tilted her head to meet his gaze. “So am I.”
    The jaguar in his eyes was pleased. “I like your claws.”
    She stretched to brush her lips over his unshaven jaw. “Do you think you can teach me to purr?”
    “Baby, you purr every time I stroke you into orgasm.”
    Lightning swept over her and everything seemed to become sharper, more in focus. She pushed away and rearranged her body until she straddled him. Face-to-face. It was fast becoming her favorite position, though she did have to bargain with Vaughn for it—her changeling’s preferred mode of sex was far more raw. Her flesh heated at the memory of his driving thrusts as she put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in to kiss him. But the expression on his face made her pause. “What?”
    “I love watching the lightning in your eyes.”
    She smiled. It seemed right that her eyes now reflected her mind.
    ???
    “Is it talking to you again?” Vaughn asked, having learned to read the shift in their bond that signaled a visit.
    She nodded. “It’s curious about you.”
    “What does it want to know?”
    “Everything. It’s thirsty for life, for hope, for sunshine.” She spread her fingers over his skin. “Like me. Make me purr, Vaughn.”
    “Inside or outside?”
    Her eyes went wide and she looked up at the night sky, a blanket of beauty and darkness, light and shadow, black and white, as it should be. “Here.”
    “What about your curious friend?” He slid his